


You've Only Just Arrived

by Masu_Trout



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Family, Gen, Introspection, Loneliness, Mid-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/pseuds/Masu_Trout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new human has fallen down into The Ruins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've Only Just Arrived

Toriel sets the table for two. 

Earthen mugs, chipped and cracked but easy to hold; her nicest off-white plates; and not-so-silver silverware, carved from wood she harvested herself after her old set got too bent and tarnished, all go out on her tiny living room table.

It's nothing fancy—it hardly matches up to the furnishings she used once upon a time, in another life—but it's pleasant enough. There's a homey sort of feel to the little room, she thinks.

Toriel wonders if the child will agree with her.

She runs back into the kitchen to fetch the cinnamon-butterscotch pie (it smells nice, though who knows how it might taste) and brings it out to the table. It's still piping hot, and the scent of it wafts through the room. In only a few more minutes, the aroma will probably overtake the entire house.

It's been so long since she did any of this. Nowadays, she normally she just makes whatever she has the ingredients for, then eats it over the kitchen sink with whichever cutlery happens to be laying on the counter next to her. No hassle, to be certain, but no excitement either.

A dessert like this really isn't appropriate for a child's dinner, but as a last-minute welcoming gift she figures it will do just fine. Tomorrow she'll start making some more savory meals.

Toriel puts the pie in the center of the table, then takes a step back to look around the room. Everything is perfectly in place; it looks rustic, welcoming. The sort of house a child would love to explore.

She nods, satisfied. This will have to do. 

“Child,” she calls out softly as she makes her way out into the hall, “child, I've made dinner! Are you hungry?”

 _Will you like it?_ she doesn't ask. _Will it make you happy? If I do everything well enough, will you be the one to finally stay?_

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Toriel, always getting left behind by the ones she wants to protect.


End file.
